Jane Fonda

Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda had undergone nearly as many transformations throughout her career as a cat has lives, with each new phase of her life - however scandalous or controversial -...
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Hollywood star Jane Fonda is set to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the board of the American Film Institute (AFI), 36 years after her father. The Mamma Mia! actress has been chosen to receive the 42nd AFI Life Achievement Award which will be presented to the star at a Los Angeles ceremony on 5 June next year (14).
Sir Howard Stringer, chairman of the American Film Institute's Board of Trustees, says, "Jane Fonda is American film royalty... A bright light first introduced to the world as the daughter of Henry Fonda, the world watched as she found her own voice and forged her own path as an actor and a cultural icon.
"Today she stands tall among the giants of American film, and it is AFI's honour to present Jane Fonda with its 42nd Life Achievement Award."
The actress is following in the footsteps of her father Henry Fonda, who received the award in 1978.

The Emmys aren't usually praised for their adventurousness. Traditionally, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will pick a few darlings (remember the Frasier years?) and nominate the hell out of them until they're off the air. This leaves little room to acknowledge the new, the fringe, or the emerging talent.
If the marquee category nominations are putting you to sleep, keep scrolling to get down to the fun stuff. The Guest Actor and Guest Actress categories inject a little life into the proceedings and remind us of some of the most campy, dramatic, hilarious, and yes — excellent — performances of the year.
In this year's Guest Actor in a Drama Category, the field includes two beloved stars who chewed scenery on The Good Wife (Nathan Lane and Michael J. Fox); Mad Men's stalwart senior partner Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) and new player Jim Cutler (Harry Hamlin); British dreamboat Rupert Friend as a CIA black-ops agent on Homeland; and as James Novak, the suspicious journalist threatening all the wheelers and dealers on Scandal, Dan Bucatinsky. For Guest Actress in a Drama, we have the formidable Margo Martindale on otherwise unrecognized spy drama The Americans; Dame Diana Rigg as the best mother-in-law in Westeros on Game of Thrones; another nod to The Good Wife, this time for Carrie Preston; Linda Cardellini as Don's mistress of the moment on Mad Men; Jane Fonda as the owner presiding over The Newsroom; and the ever-enjoyable Joan Cusack for Shameless.
In Comedy, the Guest Actor Category includes two standout Saturday Night Live hosts (Louis C.K. and Justin Timberlake); a living legend (Bob Newhart on The Big Bang Theory); more Nathan Lane, this time for Modern Family; Boardwalk Empire star Bobby Cannavale for his work on Nurse Jackie; and Will Forte for playing Jenna Maroney's boyfriend and impersonator on 30 Rock. Finally, Guest Actress in a Comedy shouts out Molly Shannon, sincere and hilarious on Enlightened; Dot-Marie Jones (Coach Beiste on Glee); Oscar winner Melissa Leo for an unforgettable appearance on Louie; Jack's guilt-tripping mother on 30 Rock (Broadway instituion Elaine Strich); and SNL hosts Melissa McCarthy (her second time out) and Kristen Wiig (her first since leaving the cast.)
Unfortunately, these awards aren't afforded a spot on the main broadcast, but are included in the untelevised Creative Arts Emmys. So, congratulations to Dan Bucatinsky, Carrie Preston, Bob Newhart, and Melissa Leo for besting their fellow nominees in that ceremony, which took place on Sunday, Sep. 15. We'll look forward to seeing tiny fractions of your acceptance speeches on the big show this coming Sunday.
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Few things are as precious as getting the chance to talk to Oprah. It should really be on everybody’s bucket list. It’s like meeting Jesus if Jesus was a billionaire talk-show personality. When her royal highness of all televised media descends on your tiny hovel of a local news station and graces her with her presence, you sit, listen, and sell her as many handbags as you can.
When Chicago’s WGN Morning News team got the chance to dish with Oprah about her OWN network, by human error or some unfair twist of fate, the phone call cuts off, interrupting Oprah mid-sentence. The gob smacked anchors are left with nothing but dial tone and failure hanging in the air. What follows is a flurry of blaming and self-pity. One anchor even jokingly laments “How do we cut off the one guest we’ve had that people might be interested in watching?” The whole thing is just hilarious. Luckily, Oprah is a great sport about it, calling the station back a few minutes later and joking with them about the mishap. The news crew also takes the mistake in stride, even taking a few playful jabs at Oprah herself. All in all, everything turns out well, and the video of the incident is sure to give the station more attention than an error-free interview would ever recieve.
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In light of his late-career resurgence on Showtime's Ray Donovan, let's revisit a few of Jon Voight's greatest performances.
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Midnight CowboyAs Joe Buck, a small town hustler with big city ambitions, Voight earned universal praise from both fans and critics, as well as his first Oscar nod. Midnight Cowboy also went on to win 1969's Academy Award for Best Picture, the first, and still only, X-Rated film to receive that honor.
DeliveranceThis story about a canoe trip gone bad, may be one of the creepiest films of Voight's career, yet also one of his most lasting. The pork and ham business must have suffered dearly after the film's iconic "squeal like a pig" scene.
Coming HomePlaying a paralyzed veteran that returns home after the Vietnam war, Voight won his first and only Academy Award for Best Actor. His co-star, Jane Fonda, also won an Oscar for Best Actress.
AliOnly Jon Voight could land a supporting role in a Will Smith movie and undoubtedly outshine the film's star. As sports legend Howard Cosell, Voight added depth and dimension to a man whose larger than life personage often fell victim to mockery. Voight also received his fourth Academy nomination for the role.
Ray DonovanIn an age where television has overtaken the movies as the medium of choice for top-level talent, the 74-year-old has received some of the best reviews in years for his role as a murderous Boston-bred father on Showtime's Ray Donovan. If the show's still on six years from now, Voight may be television's first octogenarian tough guy.
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The Weinstein Co.
The Weinstein Co.'s Lee Daniels' The Butler does it again as the true life drama tops the chart for the second straight week taking in an impressive $17 million against a mere 31% second weekend drop as it crosses the $50 million mark at the domestic box office.
The R-rated comedy We're the Millers from Warner Bros. has become a late summer sensation as it continues to build upon great word-of-mouth with $13.5 million in its third weekend and a minuscule 25% drop and a domestic total approaching $100 million.
Sony Pictures
Third place goes to the debut of Sony's young adult entry The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones with $14 million since its debut last Wednesday and $9.3 million for the weekend. This is pretty much in line with expectations for the film and is the latest attempt to woo the very fickle young adult audience that has made The Hunger Games and Twilight franchises enormously successful.
Focus Features enlisted the Shawn of the Dead crew to make an end of the world pub crawl gone wrong comedy The World's End and the results were solid. With a modest budget and a loyal following for the filmmakers, $8.9 million was a solid result for this R-rated over the top comedy.
Rounding out the Top 5 is Planes from Disney which remains a late summer family favorite as it earns an estimated $8.6 million in its third weekend and nearly $60 million in North America.
Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine from Sony Pictures Classics jumps into the Top 10 as it adds 1,054 theaters this week and earns $4.3 million and takes its cumulative gross to nearly $15 million in its fifth weekend of release.
One more weekend left in the summer movie season as we remain over 10% ahead of last year and remain on pace to beat 2011's $4.4 billion record summer revenue.
Top Movies for Weekend of August 23 - August 25 (Estimates)Rank Movie Gross Theaters Avg.Per YTD Distributor01 Lee Daniels' The Butler $17.01M 3,110 $5,472 $52.27M TWC02 We're the Millers $13.5M 3,445 $3,919 $91.74M Warner Bros.03 Mortal Instruments: City of Bones $9.3M 3,118 $2,983 $14.05M Sony04 The World's End $8.94M 1,549 $5,773 $8.94M Focus Features05 Planes $8.56M 3,378 $2,536 $59.59M Disney06 Elysium $7.1M 2,913 $2,437 $69.0M Sony/Tri-Star07 You're Next $7.05M 2,437 $2,893 $7.05M Lionsgate08 Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters $5.2M 2,730 $1,905 $48.3M Fox09 Blue Jasmine $4.3M 1,283 $3,352 $14.8M SPC10 Kick-Ass 2 $4.27M 2,945 $1,450 $22.42M Universal
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The owners of a cinema in Kentucky are refusing to screen Lee Daniels' The Butler because it briefly features Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan. Theatre boss Ike Boutwell has told The News-Enterprise newspaper he plans to boycott the film due to the veteran actress' opposition to the Vietnam War, which he trained pilots for.
Lee Daniels' The Butler is currently America's number one movie, but it won't be showing at Boutwell's MoviePalace and Showtime Cinemas in Elizabethtown.
He says, "I trained hundreds of pilots to fly, many of whom Ms. Fonda clapped and cheered as they were shot down."

The Weinstein Company
All in all, playing a U.S. president in a movie is a far better deal than actually being one. The stress is minimal, the fandom is more likely, and the pay is way better. As such, The Butler has got to be one of the best gigs Hollywood has offered in years: the Lee Daniels drama elects the likes of Robin Williams, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, John Cusack, and Alan Rickman to play some of America's most formidable 20th century leaders, adding to the long list of men who have portrayed our countries various former Commanders-in-Chief.
In timing with The Butler, we're taking another look at that list in the form of our Presidential Placemat: a commemoration of the great performers who have lead the nation on the big and small screens. Click below for a larger image that celebrates our country's wonderful history... or at least, the wonderful history of movies like Dick and shows like Futurama.
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On the surface, framing the tumultuous civil rights era around the personal drama of a black butler working inside the White House might seem hokey. Folding history lessons in an entertaining package has always proven a difficult balancing act. But Lee Daniels' The Butler stands as a testament to reserved directing, a focused script and strong character-acting for the sake of the larger picture outside the movie house.
The heart and soul of the piece resides firmly in the capable hands of Forest Whitaker who, as titular character Cecil Gaines, balances pathos, pride, and strength with a human dash of regret. The other characters all seem to pass through his life but leave bold marks on him and the film's drama. Oprah Winfrey as Ms. Gloria Gaines, Terrence Howard as the sleazy philandering neighbor who takes advantage of the lonely Gloria, and Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lenny Kravitz as fellow White House help stand out the strongest for their raw abilities to inhabit their roles.
Though you would expect such actors to hold their own, the real delight of the Butler comes from the fact that there are no shortcomings in the film's supporting roles. The dynamic between the brothers of Cecil and Gloria offers a delightful comic relief, which is peppered amongst the drama just enough to keep the struggles of those times bearable. Elijah Kelley delights as the younger, naïve, parent-pleasing Charlie, and David Oyelowo embodies ultra-righteousness as Louis, jumping at every opportunity of civil disobedience to fight for his people's human rights (from protesting Jim Crow laws in the South to joining the Black Panther party). Meanwhile, the presidents — despite being played by high profile actors like Robin Williams (Eisenhower), John Cusack (Nixon), Liev Schreiber (LBJ), Alan Rickman (Reagan), and an unforgettable Jane Fonda as Nancy — never hang around the drama long enough to distract from its main concern of a black man struggling with apathy as the times change around him.
No character ever overshadows Cecil, who encapsulates an array of issues, from escaping an oppressive life on a cotton farm as a child to arriving at a revelation stemming from a simple gesture by taking a seat at a fancy dinner in his twilight years. It's this quiet struggle of a man trying to get by in a rough and tumble world that remains the film's main concern. The 52-year-old Whitaker does a noble job as he ages from a young man to a 90-year-old.
Compared to Daniels' powerful breakout Precious (2009) and the horrible, dull mess of the Paperboy (2012), the film features a reserved sensibility thanks to the director's decision to turn down the histrionics for a change. Throughout his short filmmaking career, Daniels has always shown a keen control over camera placement to keep a film visually dynamic, despite some dramatic failings. The Butler is no exception, as Daniels' artistry appears in the film's first frame. He still, however, leans on slow motion during a few scenes for overkill emphasis. He doesn't need that. His greatest accomplishment in The Butler lies in how he keeps the other characters in check against the quiet but important struggles of Cecil. Despite the film's many stars, no one is distracted as Daniels reveals a strong sense of mise-en-scène when burying the cast's celebrity. Daniels also continues to do raw well with make-up and wardrobe dialed down to keep it real and earthy.
The script deserves singling out as the glue that makes The Butler work as neatly as it does. Written by Danny Strong, the scribe behind another brisk political drama, the acclaimed McCain-Palin exposé Game Change on HBO, it makes for an engaging, well-paced affair despite running over two hours long. Strong based his script on a Washington Post article about a black man who served as a butler to eight presidents between the '50s and '80s. In order to emphasize the history and the tension of the civil rights movement on this family who happened to have close ties to the White House, Strong took liberties with the story. He created composite characters based on other memoirs with intimate access to the White House. It's a matter of convenience to place some of these characters at three or four too many important historical moments that may seem contrived to some. However, I'd forgive the film for teetering close to Forrest Gump cartoonery for the sake of its emphasis on moments in history that can too easily be forgotten as generations pass.
After the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, The Butler serves as an important role in reminding us that equality and malaise between ethnic groups and classes still festers in this era, even after the election of the first black president. We need a movie that looks back at history and offers a reminder about the long way America has come and the long way it still has to go. That The Butler can do it while remaining entertaining is a bonus many will appreciate.
4/5
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Filmmaker Lee Daniels is best known for his Academy Award-winning film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, for which he received a Best Director nomination. This summer he's set to become a household name (quite literally) with his newest movie Lee Daniels' The Butler. Based on a true story, the film chronicles the life of a black man, Cecil Gaines, who served as the White House butler for eight presidential terms. During his 34-year tenure, he witnessed and even became involved in some of the most important events of 20th century American history.
Lee Daniels' The Butler has been making headlines this summer. But it's not only because of its all-star ensemble cast, or female lead Oprah Winfrey's return to cinema. The film has been the subject of a heated legal dispute between two major film studios. Back in June, The Butler was all set for a theatrical release by The Weinstein Company until Warner Bros. filed a lawsuit, claiming that it owned the rights to the title The Butler because of its 1916 silent film of the same name. As a result, the upcoming historical drama has been retitled to include the director's name.
When we asked Lee Daniels about his feelings on the title change, the director still wasn't entirely sure of his opinion. "I want people to see the movie. And I don't want people to think I'm Martin Scorsese and that I think I can put my name in front of the movie. So I don't know how I feel about it. I don't know whether I feel good or bad about 'Lee Daniels' The Butler.' I don't know how I feel about it because it's still just fermenting in my head — trying to figure out this title that's been forced on me. Because I don't want people to think that it's Me. It's really odd!"
Another major talking point was one particular scene from the film in which a bus full of Freedom Riders is attacked by a gang of flame-wielding Ku Klux Klan members. We asked Daniels how it felt to shoot that privotal scene, and he compared it to a less severe but similarly emotional scene from Precious. "It was no different than shooting Precious in the mirror, seeing herself look like [a white blonde girl]. It was hard. I cried when I did it, like I cried during Precious, because it went deeper than the movie... It cut to the heart of Precious. Gabi couldn't complete the scene. Because the world wants people with blonde hair and blue eyes, that's considered beautiful and wonderful and life is good. And if you don't look like that, you're a freak, you aren't embraced, you aren't loved. So doing [the Freedom Riders scene] was sort of the same thing, you know."
Filming the action-packed scene also proved to be rather frightening. "When I was with the kids on the bus, because I'm a director who likes to sit with the actors and see what's going on, and we're looking outside, and all of the sudden I yell "Action!" And then the KKK members start swarming the bus, and this is the first take, and it's hot in there because we don't have any air conditioning. And we see these wonderful extras, coming at us, full force, and I yell "Cut!" But they didn't hear me. And then everyone on the bus is like "Holy shit! Let's get out of here!" And I knew then — I put myself in what those kids, both black and white, were doing. They were willing to die for what they believed in. I had a quick sense of "Oh my God. This is what those kids felt." They were 17, 18, 19, 20 — they were kids, fighting for freedom. Not just black kids but white kids." Recalling that emotional day of shooting, Daniels' voice started to become shaky, as he added, "I'm going to get emotional. It's really hard to talk about it. It was difficult."
On a lighter note, the director reminisced on the experience of directing the powerful presence and highly influential figure that is Orpah. "She was very nervous in the beginning. And I was nervous because I was directing Oprah! So we were both a bundle of nerves," Daniels said. "And I finally said, 'Okay stop it! We need to get this done. Oprah, I need you to do this and sit here and I need you to just smoke a cigarette, etc'." The direction clearly worked — Oprah's powerhouse performance as the butler's wife is already creating Oscar buzz. And having seen the movie, we completely agree.
Lee Daniels' The Butler hits theaters on August 16.
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Summary

Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda had undergone nearly as many transformations throughout her career as a cat has lives, with each new phase of her life - however scandalous or controversial - keeping the public eternally fascinated. As the daughter of film legend Henry Fonda, she parlayed the family name into a movie career that began with "Tall Story" (1960). Her comedic role in "Cat Ballou" (1965) was followed by a full-fledged metamorphosis into a 1960s sex kitten, as embodied in decadent French director and then-husband Roger Vadim's "Barbarella" (1968). Disturbed by her sexual exploitation, Fonda recreated herself as the cause-conscious champion of Black Panthers, Native Americans and anti-war activists, and her visit to North Vietnam in 1972 earned her the lasting enmity of the Right, who venomously dubbed her "Hanoi Jane." But she was able to shake off such abuse with successful films like "Coming Home" (1978) and "9 to 5" (1980), while making another career turn as "Queen of the Exercise Video," when her aerobic workout tapes helped popularize at-home exercise, raking in millions. Though she retired from acting in 1990 and primarily came to be known for her less-than-idyllic marriage to cable tycoon Ted Turner, Fonda re-emerged in 2005 to reactivate her career, cementing her place as one of Hollywood's truly iconic actresses.

Born July 7, 1973; father Tom Hayden; named after a Vietnamese resistance leader and given paternal grandmother's surname; portrayed his father in "Steal This Movie" (2000), a biopic about Abbie Hoffman

Lynden Gillis

Companion

Began dating in 2007 after meeting at a book signing; No longer together

Six years Fonda's senior; involved at time of her feature debut "Tall Story" (1960)

Mary Williams

Daughter

Adopted in the 1970s; Williams attended a children's camp run by Fonda and then-husband Tom Hayden

Education

Name

Art Students League of New York

Emma Willard School

Brentwood Town and Country School

Vassar College

Actors Studio

Notes

While visiting North Vietnam in July 1972, Fonda was photographed seated on an anti-aircraft battery. She also participated in several radio broadcasts on behalf of the Communist regime, asking U.S. aircrews to consider the consequences of their actions. Fonda's actions in July 1972 was perceived by many as an unpatriotic display of aid and comfort to the enemy, with some characterizing it as treason. Years later, she was labeled as "Hanoi Jane" by her critics.

Fonda dedicated herself to working with pregnant teens in the Atlanta area, creating the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, a nonprofit organization established with funds from the Turner Foundation.

Comparing third husband Ted Turner to her father: "Oh, he's very much like my father, with none of the bad parts. He's like my father, and sometimes he even sounds like him, and sometimes he looks like him. He loves fishing, my dad was a fisherman. One big difference. I never know how to say it in English, but 'bien dans sa peau.' Ted is well within his skin. Ted is not afraid of expressing need, and he loves women, and he is not threatened by them." – Fonda to Vanity Fair magazine, April 1997

She received an honorary degree from Emerson College in May 2000.

In 2001, Fonda established the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. The goal of the center was to prevent adolescent pregnancy through training and program development.

In March 2001, it was announced that Fonda donated $12.5 million to Harvard University's School of Education to study the role of gender in education. Her donation was reportedly the largest in the school's history to that date.

During a "60 Minutes" interview on March 31, 2005, Fonda stated that she had no regrets about her trip to North Vietnam in 1972, with the exception of the anti-aircraft gun photo. She stated that the incident was a "betrayal" of American forces and of the "country that gave me privilege." Fonda said, "The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella, Henry Fonda's daughter...sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal...the largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine." Fonda said she had no regrets about the broadcasts she made on Radio Hanoi, something she asked the North Vietnamese to do: "Our government was lying to us and men were dying because of it, and I felt I had to do anything that I could to expose the lies and help end the war."

"I have been successful, famous, financially independent – all of those things are true," says Fonda. "Yet, behind the closed doors I was afflicted with the disease to please, and would totally give up my own voice. That shows how insidious misogyny is, that even for someone like me, it can invade your core." – Fonda talking about her memoir My Life So Far to CNN.com, April 5, 2005

In December 2008, Fonda was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

In November 2010, Fonda revealed that a routine check-up found that she had breast cancer. The cancer was diagnosed as non-invasive and after undergoing a procedure, she was cancer-free.